As a teacher in a DEIS school I feel very strongly about development education. The setting of our school in a disadvantaged area unfortunately means that many of our children often have distorted views on racism, gender equality and what it means to be an Irish citizen in an ever-changing world. As the author noted in his piece ‘The Role of global Citizens in Today’s World’, there is a correlation between ‘anti-immigrant, racialised rhetoric and areas which are underprivileged. For this reason, I feel that there is a huge responsibility on educators to expose our pupils to other more liberal points of view and to ensure they see far beyond the confines of their own local area.
In my own teaching and in line with the curriculum guidelines, I try to ensure my pupils are exposed to a wide variety of lessons, in all subject areas, based on ideas, concepts, history and geography of other regions throughout the world.
As a school community we encourage our pupils, especially those from other countries to share their stories and culture. A big success in the past few years has been our multicultural day where families cooked their national dishes and took them in for everyone to try.
